Translating the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index into Arabic

Area of Science:

• Psychometrics
• Clinical Psychology
• Cross-cultural Adaptation

Background:

• The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) is a widely used tool for sleep quality assessment.
• Adaptation of validated instruments is crucial for cross-cultural research and clinical practice.

Purpose of the Study:

• To translate and psychometrically evaluate the Arabic version of the PSQI.
• To assess the reliability and validity of the translated PSQI in a sample of Arabic bilinguals.

Main Methods:

• The PSQI was translated into Arabic and back-translated into English by 10 bilingual translators.
• Psychometric testing involved assessing internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) and convergent validity.
• Convergent validity was examined by correlating PSQI scores with the Insomnia Severity Index and the SF-36 vitality subscale.

Main Results:

• The Arabic PSQI demonstrated borderline internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alpha = .65).
• Moderate to high correlations were found between five PSQI components and the global score (r = .53 to .82, p < .01).
• Strong convergent validity was supported by a high correlation with the Insomnia Severity Index (r = .76) and moderate correlation with the SF-36 vitality subscale (r = -.33).

Conclusions:

• The translated Arabic PSQI exhibits acceptable psychometric properties for use in Arabic-speaking populations.
• Further validation in larger, diverse Arabic populations (clinical and healthy) is warranted.
• The study supports the utility of the Arabic PSQI in cross-cultural sleep quality research.